The "Mystery Science Theatre 3000" series has a reboot coming to Netflix with a new season this upcoming spring, with many big names and returning cast attached to the project, but will feature a new host and main cast, yet with much of what is to come being currently kept under-wraps. The series, which gives humorous commentary to obscure and unusual movies with a cast of snarky puppets, had been brought back to life through the financial aid of fans on a Kickstarter campaign.
Original cast and crew returning for the reboot
Various performers and writers from the original show will appear in the reboot, which include Bill Corbett, who served as the second voice of Crow, Kevin Murphy, who served as the second voice of Tom Servo, and Mary Jo Pehl, who played the late-series, live-action villain Pearl Forrester.
In addition, Felicia Day and Patton Oswalt will serve as series regulars, with Jonah Ray starring as the show’s new host, although little is known as of yet about their characters. Other slated guest stars will include Jack Black, Joel McHale, Jerry Seinfeld, and Mark Hamill.
The show’s official release date is currently April 14, 2017. The new upcoming season will last fourteen episodes, and will be viewed as the 11th season of the original series. In addition, a holiday special is also said to be in the works. In its original run, the series released 197 television episodes in total, with the seasons not having a consistent number of episodes, going as low as 6 to as high as 24. It is also currently unknown which movies will be licensed for use in the upcoming episodes.
Fans helped crowdfund the reboot on Kickstarter
The show had notably been crowdfunded through the use of a Kickstarter. Joel Hodgson, who is the show’s original creator, had been the one to instigate and headline the reboot project since its crowdfunding origins. With 48,270 backers, the campaign had raised $5,764,229, surpassing its original $2,000,000 goal.
Some of the original Kickstarter backers were given an early glimpse of the show in part due to the "Red Carpet Kickstarter Screening" promotion, with filming for the new season finishing by the end of this past October.
The original series, which debuted on the local Minneapolis UHF station KTMA, worked as something of a movie anthology series.
Joel Robinson, played by Hodgson himself, was stranded on a satellite and forced to watch bad movies, and is joined by various robots he created called the Bots, played by puppets, who offer commentary on the films. The series employed various changes over the years, notably with head writer Michael J. Nelson taking the place of the host during the fifth season. Officially running from 1988 to 1999, the series has had various spin-offs incarnations over the years, such as the “RiffTrax” series or online flash animations concerning the Bot characters.
